Capital One complaint: customer complains Capital One jacking up interst

I just received a letter from Capital One raising my credit card interest rate from 9.99 to 17.9. Their attitude was take it or cancel the card.

I have never been late on any bill in my entire life and have paid the Capital One card balance one week early on-line in full.

My credit is great. The interest rate goes into effect in one year. I'm sure you will be hearing about this from others. Can you imagine having a large balance and getting this in the mail.

I'm 66 and its my belief that the Credit Card companies are punishing the good payers to make up for those defaulting.

I also got a letter in the mail from Chase charging me a $10.00 a month fee.

I have a $13,000 balance and am paying it off on time every month. They also raised the minimum payment from 2% to 5%. The interest rate is 6%. They said theywould remove the fee if I agreed to pay a rate of 7.9%.

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9 Comments

I too recieved the same letter changing my interest rate... I guess getting billions of dollars from the Federal Government ( My Taxes) to bail their sorry butts out of crisis isn't enough...Now instead of loosening the credit requirements they are penalizing the good customers... Where is my President on this action.... Obama is trying to stimulate the economy but greedy self-righteous companies cut the legs out from under him... I guess Capitol One wants to steal every penny from the customers it can so the golden parachutes stay full of green...And where are my legislative representatives and local Newspapers... Ahhh Head in the sand as usual????

I TOO RECEIVED THE SAME LETTER. WHEN I CALLED CAP 1 THEY SIMPLY STATED THAT THEY HAVE SET "PARAMETERS" & ARE ENFORCING THOSE UPON CHOSEN ACCOUNTS! i.e. IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE SLUGS WHO PAYS OFF YOUR CARD ON TIME~~ WE ARE JACKING UP YOUR INTEREST RATE TO 18%!!
MY WIFE ALSO HAS A CAP 1 CARD WHICH WE DO CARRY A BALANCE ON (SO THEY EARN INTEREST) & THEY DID NOT THINK ABOUT RAISING HER INTEREST RATE. I BELIEVE THIS IS SIMPLY A TACTIC TO GET RID OF "THE GOOD CUSTOMERS" WHO THEY REALLY DON'T MAKE MUCH MONEY ON. THEY SAID I AM WELCOME TO CLOSE THE ACCOUNT~~ THUS MAINTAINING MY CURRENT INTEREST RATE AS LONG AS I SAY TO DO SO BY APRIL 15TH. I DO HAVE A GOOD MIND TO DO JUST THAT, MAINTAIN MY PREVIOUS INTEREST RATE & SEND THEM EXACtLY $1 OVER THE MINIMUM DUE EVERY MONTH FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. I AM A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER SO IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR ME TO HANG & PAY OFF 5 OR 6 THOUSAND A MONTH ON ANY GIVEN CARD.
HOW ABOUT A LITTLE HELP WITH THESE MONEY GRUBBERS MR OBAMA! I'M NEVER LATE WITH MY MORTGAGE SO I DON'T QUALIFY FOR ANY HELP ON THAT PROCESS! SEEMS PRETTY FUNNY TO ME THAT THOSE OF US WHO ARE STILL TRYING TO KEEP OUR HEADS ABOVE WATER BY WORKING 100 HOURS A WEEK RATHER THAN SEARCHING OUT GOVERNMENT HAND-OUTS OR STANDING IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE ARE THE ONES BEING PENALIZED SO THESE FAT CAT BANKS CAN KEEP THEIR VAULTS STUFFED FULL OF OUR TAX DOLLARS!

I received a letter in the mail too from Capitol One and they are raising my interest rate from 8.99% to 17.99% I called the company and they gave me a song and dance. Here I pay more on my card then what my payment is. I plan on just paying it off and never us them again. So sad that the people who have such good credit are the ones being singled out.

I, like many other Capital One customers, recently found out that I was charged a finance charge for a balance that occured before I paid off the card balance in full. I paid off the balance in March, and now in May, I had a $3.30 finance charge from 2 months ago on my card! I rarely use the card, and didn't realize this was on my card. So I also had a $15 late charge on my card because of all of this! This is a horrible business practice and I had the Captial One rep make a note on my account that I will no longer be using the card. What a ripoff! I have much better credit cards in my wallet and I won't be using this one ever again! You can count on that Capital One!

I too got the notice from Capital One that my card went from nine to 18 percent interest, my husband's as well. We have good credit ratings and have never been late on our payments. Whats even scarier is that a few weeks ago, they called us to tell us that there was "unauthorized activity" on our account and that they would have to send us new cards but wouldnt say what the "unauthorized activity" was due to privacy regulations. We thought nothing of it and then about 3 weeks later, we get the notice that our rates doubled. My boss and I were talking this morning and his credit card company which is Bank of America also called him with the same story about unauthorized activity and sent him new cards as well. What is up with that? He told them if they raise his rates, hes gone. It sounds to me like the credit card companies are up to something which could quite possibly amount to a class action lawsuit.

I have been a Capital One customer since 2003. I've always kept my account in good standing. Today I got a letter stating that effective July 2, 2009 my APR will be increased from 8.3% to 17.9%. I called to complain and talked to some lame supervisor who gave me the same excuses that were in the letter. The increase was due to "the challenging economic environment". I was told my only two options were to suck it up and live with the increased APR or opt out which means closing my account, locking in my current lower APR and paying off the balance. I'm choosing to opt out. Is Capital One brain dead? Are they living on some other planet? Don't they know that everyone is facing "the challenging economic environment". Increasing the APR only serves to put more people into more unwanted debt any prolongs paying down account balances. If you received this same letter send Capital One a message and opt out. Their greed is shameful!

i also received the letter...same song..payments on time, long/loyal customers...well, after i get over the shock of this...advanta card did the same to me...i am going to a debt consolidation co., or another credit card co., and they will never, ever have my business again!!!!!!!!!!! They did the same the bank did, gave cards to people who could not pay, and who are not paying, so now they have to get some money back...from us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I, to, now have my own personal Capital One story. I first got their credit card somewhere around 12-15 years ago. I don’t remember exactly! I got it because it was one of those 9.90% “fixed rate” cards that was never supposed to change as long as I kept up my end of the bargain. In all that time I never missed a payment, nor did I pay any of the monthly bills late. My credit limit was fairly low with them at around $8,300, which over the years I managed to finally get close to, but not surpass. Once again I never defaulted on paying the monthly payments. I keep meticulous notes each month of each credit card that I have, which includes the new balances, transactions, finance charges and especially the interest rates. After all these years at 9.90%, and for no reason, they increased my interest rate from the 9.90% rate that it was at from the beginning, to a whopping 17.90% in just one month. They even said that it was past due, which it was not! I checked my bank statements back to December of 2008. All were paid on time, and most were paid 2-3 weeks in advance of the due date. When I called to ask why the rate was increased I was told that I received the infamous letter in February 2009, explaining that the rate was going to increase to 17.90% in May. I personally don’t remember getting such a letter. Anyway, when I talked to the “Supervisor” after getting o nowhere with the first CSR person I talked to, the Supervisor maintained that in February I was notified that the rate would increase to 17.90%, if I didn’t pay the balance in full. I explained to the lady that I work 2 full time jobs to pay my bills and because the economy has tanked recently I have missed over 40 days of work at 12 hours a shift since Thanksgiving. She could not have cared less. I reminded her that they were part of the group that received the $800 billion bale out money from the government earlier this year. She informed me that they had already paid their portion back, but was still completely unwilling to negotiate my rate. I explained to her that bankruptcy was an option for me, and if that were the course I took that they’d get no money back from me. I told her that I would contact our TV consumer reporter for our 250,000 population area and let them know what Capital one is doing, so everyone will know their practices and avoid them in the future. She said that she would note that in my account, but maintained that nothing could be done to change the 17.90% interest rate that I was stuck with. My minimum monthly payment went from $147.00 in May to $296.00 in July. I told her that she had done what she had to do, but that I would do what I have to do. I thought Congress had mandated that Credit Card companies refrain from this type of business dealings especially in these troubled economic times. If they all do this, no one will be able to pay back their credit card balances in the future, and mass bankruptcies will follow!

Read your terms before you open credit cards. Interest rates are not a contractual agreement and can be changed legally, especially when Capital One mailed out a letter giving you the option to close your card before changes take effect. Maybe it's a good idea to more actively monitor your personal finances and not be in a position where a doubled interest rate on a credit card cripples your existence.

Also, Capital One took the minimum bailout it could from the government and paid it back as soon as it was legally allowed to. Banks were told that if they did not participate in stimulus activities that the Federal Reserve's discretionary "too big to fail" policy would never play in their favor again.

Let's start accepting our financial behaviors as our personal actions and not the responsibility of banks, governments, or increased prices. You are to blame for your overextension.

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